Chapter 147: Xi Bao Emerges from Seclusion

Without saying more about Xi Tianfeng, who had placed all his hopes in his son and finally, finally rekindled a sliver of hope, Yue Kai and the others were living orderly and fulfilling lives inside the cavern, while time flew by unnoticed. Every day, everyone felt that time was precious beyond measure and wished they could use a single day as though it were two. Their determination moved even Yue Kai, who was usually so composed.

Skinny Bamboo, Big Guy, and Four-Eyes, along with the other two team members, Birdsong Ravine and Saxon, took turns spending time among the beast hordes. All of them achieved breakthroughs. The process had been somewhat miserable, but everyone kept silent about that experience.

The training Yue Kai and Xianxian arranged for each person was perfectly tailored to their limits. It would not drive them to collapse, yet it would develop their potential to the greatest possible extent. Naturally, there was no way the process could be easy. But as Yue Kai had said, however fierce the pain, once you hurt long enough, you eventually grew accustomed to it and no longer felt it so keenly.

Amid those days of pain and joy, everyone’s strength increased at astonishing speed. Almost every day, they seemed like different people. Their understanding of “狂战” grew especially profound. It could hardly have been otherwise: they had to engage in grueling battles every day, and they could complete their assignments only by awakening their potential. Under such extreme exertion, their meridians expanded tremendously. Combined with the aid of medicine, they became extraordinarily resilient.

Yue Kai was not idle either. After learning that Xi Bao had been possessed and reborn by an evil cultivator, he felt more pressure than anyone. Evil cultivators were called evil for two reasons. First, their methods of cultivation differed from those of the orthodox schools. Second, most of them were twisted and vicious by nature, prone to extremes. Such cultivators could spill blood at the slightest provocation. After suffering such a blow at Yue Kai’s hands, if Xi Bao did not seek revenge, he would hardly deserve to be called an evil cultivator. He might as well be called a coward.

A battle with the evil cultivator was unavoidable. Although Yue Kai had already become a one-star martial artist, he still had no chance of victory against an evil cultivator whose methods were sinister and unfathomable.

The strength of a one-star martial artist—more than ten thousand ankes—was clearly not enough to secure victory. Yue Kai could only focus on developing his spiritual talent. The Phantom God Formula truly lived up to its reputation as the Immortal Fairy Empire’s national treasure. Once he had entered its gates, his cultivation advanced by leaps and bounds. In particular, after absorbing Xi Shan’s mutated spiritual power, Yue Kai often felt an urge to go out and find another opponent on whom he could use Spirit Absorption.

The thought secretly alarmed him. Yue Kai had always acted alone and killed decisively, but he had never wished to take the lives of other creatures. Everything he did was merely for the sake of surviving more effectively. Now, however, he wanted to hurt someone simply because of that faint, hidden desire in his heart. For ordinary people, this might have seemed perfectly natural, but to Yue Kai, who respected life, it was a terrifying omen.

Was it the sinister nature of the Phantom God Formula, or the influence of Xi Shan’s spiritual power?

Yue Kai suppressed the desire within him, but the sensation was like that of an addict experiencing drugs for the first time. He could not help thinking about it.

The stronger his spiritual cultivation became, the more intense that longing grew. For the past several days, Yue Kai had scarcely dared to cultivate again. He was afraid that if he continued, he would truly become an evil cultivator like Xi Bao.

Xianxian knew nothing about this either. After all, the Phantom God Formula was the secret art of the Immortal Fairy Empire’s Phantom God Palace. Ordinary people did not even have the right to glimpse it, let alone access detailed records. In the entire War Wolf Empire, Yue Kai was probably the only person who had ever seen the true form of the Phantom God Formula.

No one could say with certainty whether this was a necessary stage of cultivating the Phantom God Formula or one of its side effects.

Two months had passed, yet no one wanted to return.

Human beings were strange creatures. At first came fear, resentment, and reluctant endurance. But once they became accustomed to something, they found themselves unable to leave it. That was the terrifying power of habit. Now that they could feel their strength surging with every passing day, not only the Wu siblings and the members of the Blue Shark Squad were reluctant to leave—even Lanbo, the indolent young heir, seemed to have become an entirely different person. He demanded to continue Yue Kai’s devilish training and even produced the academy’s curriculum for comparison, declaring that what he had learned there had been complete garbage.

Yue Kai had always been democratic. After carefully asking the young lady Li Yan for her opinion, he finally decided that they would not leave for the time being and would extend their vacation. As for the trivial matter of requesting leave, one communication was all it took; Lanska would handle everything. Lanska was delighted to see Lanbo making such progress and naturally agreed without hesitation.

Although one could not see the other person’s cultivation through a communication link, Lanbo’s bronze-colored skin and bright, penetrating eyes made him look like a completely different person. Lanska still found it difficult to believe, but because of his blind worship of the Professor, he was not surprised that Yue Kai could produce such a result.

After praising Yue Kai lavishly, Lanska revealed another piece of information. The cheerful atmosphere instantly vanished, and everyone fell silent, their expressions turning grim.

The news was that Xi Bao, the Xi family’s chosen champion and Xi Tianfeng’s son, had emerged from seclusion.

The first thing Xi Bao did after coming out was to announce that he would teach Yue Kai, the ignorant little Wildman, a proper lesson. He even declared that if Yue Kai dared appear at the opening ceremony, he would beat him until he knelt and begged for mercy.

Faced with such provocation, any man would have found it difficult to endure. Even if it meant losing his head and shedding his blood, he would still have wanted to fight his opponent to the bitter end. But everyone except Lanska knew Xi Bao’s true background. He was an evil cultivator who had seized another body and been reborn, and his strength was terrifying beyond imagination. That much could already be seen from Xi Shan, the slave of the artifact.

Yue Kai was certainly a prodigy, but no one believed he was qualified to fight such a terrifying opponent. If he acted on impulse—

No one dared imagine the dreadful consequences. They all gazed at Yue Kai with pleading eyes, leaving him so embarrassed that he could not help cursing, “Your young master may be handsome, but I certainly have no taste for men. Why are you all staring at me like that?”

At a time like this, only Lanbo dared to speak. “Boss, keep calm. Whatever you do, don’t act rashly. Xi Bao is nothing but a pile of filth. He’s shameless enough to beg you to step on him, but your noble legs surely wouldn’t stoop to touching such disgusting trash, would they?”

Yue Kai could neither laugh nor cry. Seeing the concern in everyone’s eyes, he felt a warm current spread through his heart. He knew they were worried about him, so he smiled and said, “Don’t worry. We have more important things to do, and no time to bother with that mad dog. Once we’ve finished what we came here to accomplish, we’ll all gang up on him.”

“Boss is wise!”

“Long live the boss!”

“Boss is mighty!”

A thunderous, shameless cheer erupted at once. Lanska stared in bewilderment, but his admiration for Yue Kai only deepened. To know when to advance and when to yield, and to refrain from displaying the courage of a fool—this young man truly deserved to be the Professor’s student. He was destined for greatness.

Yue Kai laughed inwardly. Honor and status might be more important than life to other people, but he did not care about them in the slightest. Charging to one’s death was something only an idiot would do. He would let Xi Bao strut about for a few more days. After cultivating bitterly for a while longer, he would naturally deal with him. Throwing his life away for an empty reputation was not Yue Kai’s style.

After making all the necessary arrangements, Yue Kai ended the communication and continued training.

Xi Bao’s emergence from seclusion stirred an invisible storm throughout Central China City. Those who had previously chosen to support the Lan family all began watching and waiting. Everyone knew that the feud between the Lan and Xi families had reached the point of no return. The two families’ young champions were bound to fight a battle to the death, and in the cultivation world of the War Wolf Empire, where reputation was valued above all else, this was unquestionably a major event.

Xi Bao had publicly challenged Yue Kai. According to imperial tradition, unless the opponent was crippled and unable to fight, such a provocation could not be tolerated. The reputation of an entire great family was at stake, and no one could ignore it.

Yet what left everyone dumbfounded was that no one from the Lan family appeared at the opening ceremony.

The young master Xi Bao flew into a rage. Yue Kai’s refusal to fight made him feel deeply humiliated. In front of a hundred million citizens, Young Master Xi cursed Yue Kai, that little Wildman, hurling obscenities so vile that they were almost impossible to hear. Through the Divine Network broadcast, all one hundred million citizens learned of the incident, and a tremendous uproar followed.

There was only one reason: Yue Kai’s identity as a Wildman had deeply roused the people of Huaxia, who had lived in comfort for so many years that they had nearly forgotten their own ancestors.

Yue Kai’s deeds were gradually exposed as well, along with every detail of his feud with the Xi family.

An image of a fearless, tenacious man who refused to bow before power suddenly emerged. To the numbed second-class citizens, it was like an injection of stimulant. The national sentiment buried in their hearts erupted completely. Yue Kai became their spiritual pillar.

In this age, when the empire’s nobility controlled everything and the indigenous people were reduced to second-class citizens and subjected to unequal treatment, Yue Kai was the first native brave enough to say no to the invaders and resist them. That spirit had always flowed through everyone’s blood; it had merely been worn down and suppressed by a life of comfort. Yue Kai was like a fuse, and his actions ignited the national soul of the people.

The younger generation, in particular, was naturally more rebellious. Combined with Yue Kai’s age, this made him an ideal object of worship.

Without Yue Kai’s knowledge, Young Master Xi’s tirade had turned him into an idol in the hearts of Central China City’s hundred million indigenous residents. Such a meteoric rise to fame was nothing short of miraculous. For a time, the name Yue Kai became a common expression among the natives. Whenever it was mentioned, their faces filled with pride and excitement.

In many places, demonstrations in support of Yue Kai even broke out. Central China City had not seen such activities for a full fifty years.

When Lanska learned of all this, he did not try to suppress the people’s emotions. Instead, he smiled knowingly.

Everything seemed to be unfolding within his grasp. The people needed a hero, a spiritual anchor. Yue Kai, meanwhile, needed a home—a city that belonged to him. And that was the greatest help Lanska could offer.